


What College is For

by pairatime



Series: Jake's College AU [1]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: AU, Dorms, Gen, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 11:49:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4434371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pairatime/pseuds/pairatime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake starts over at 18 in college and makes some new friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What College is For

**Author's Note:**

> For smallfandomfest round 5, Animorphs (Book’verse): Jake, don't stop moving
> 
> So I started this forever ago and wrote two parts. now idea if I'll write more but we'll see.

_name is Jake, Jake Berenson and I’m the leader of the Animorphs. Or I was for three years. Then the war ended and Visser Three was imprisoned. That was two years ago.  
Since then the Animorphs have disbanded. Ax is out exploring, Cassie protecting the Hork-Bajir, Marco is making movies and Tobias is somewhere, still planning my death. Not that I blame him, I may even let him.  
They’ve moved on and at last so have I, think I have anyways. It’s my first day of college, I never really graduated high school but the college was more than willing to overlook that. Between the state and government it’s paid for and I even have some spending money, of course the drawback is I’m in a dorm._

***

“Checking in?” a tall red head dressed simply in jeans and a shirt asked as she walked up to Jake.

“Yeah, room 203 I believe,” Jake said as he pushed off from his car turning toward the women.

“Name please?” she asked as she pulled a clipboard from her bag.

“Jake Berenson,” Jake said as he held out a hand to introduce himself.

“Crystal and it looks like we’ll be suitemates,” the red head said returning the introduction, “I’ll show you the suite.”

“Sure, the school didn’t say much beyond private rooms,” Jake said as the two walked into the building and up the stairs.

“The outer doors normally need a code to open, you’ll also getting two keys, one for the suite and one for your room,” Crystal explained as they walked up the stairs and down the hall until they reached the door marked 203 in bronze, “and here it is.”

Jake followed her into the suite before stopping to look around. The large center room had a couple sofas, coffee table, dinning room table with chairs and small kitchen along one side. The rest of the walls were a number of doors, eight of them.

“The first three doors on the right are for the guys, the three on the left are women’s. The right door by the kitchen is the shower and the left is the bathroom. The middle guy door is taken by Rich but both A and C is empty,” Crystal said as she walked about the room pointing out the doors.

Jake looked around the room for a moment before opening the doors to both rooms. Both where simple rooms institutionally furnished with twin beds with drawers under them and a desk with a side table in each room. But room C had a window that overlooked a central courtyard below. 

“I’ll take this one, I like windows.”

“Great, I can help you bring your stuff up if you want,” Crystal told Jake as she wrote some stuff on her clipboard, “but first I need you to sign here.”

***

_took most of the week for the rest of my new roommates to arrive. Beyond Crystal the RA majoring in public relations there was Rich, Business; Susan, Chemistry; Mary, History and English; and Mike, Physical fitness and sports management all of them upper classmen._

_That Sunday Crystal made a big group dinner for us all to sit and talk with each other and it was going great until Mike started making a big deal about having a freshmen in the upperclassmen dorm._

***

“I just want to know how you did it? There was no way I would have been able to get in here as a frosh,” Mike said as he looked over at Jake.

“I just know some people here that got me in,” Jake said as he poured Crystal’s homemade tomato sauce over his pasta.

“I thinks it’s cool, someone who doesn’t think he knows it all,” Rich cut in as he looked over at Mike.

“Who do you know? My godfathers’ on the Board of Trustees and I still had to be in the freshmen dorms. That year sucked. I just want to know how you did it,” Mike said as he looked over at Jake.

“Does it really matter? He’s here and I like it too,” Crystal added as she held out a basket of breadsticks. 

***

_I want to be a normal guy as much as I can. For as long as I can I want to just be like any other college kid. Just a normal guy not the leader of a resistance moment against an empire bent on galactic domination. I don’t want to fight the Yeerks I want to deal with normal collage stuff like lines, reading list and papers. For as long as it last anyways._

***

“I don’t believe this. The lines here are just wacked,” Rich said as he looked back at Jack, “it’s the same every year too.”

“Is that why Crystal and Mary were out so early this morning?” Jake asked as he looked over at the lines for books.

“Yeah, they liked to get done early. What books to you need?”

“English 101, and basic math, my other class doesn’t have a book. It’s just articles or something. You?” Jake asked as he grabbed his last book.

“I’ve got a semester of all new classes, ‘Installer Economics’, ‘Intro to Other Races; Andalite, Hork-Bajir, Leeran, and Other species’, and for fun ‘Animorphs: Secret War’. There’s a rumor that one of the Animorphs will be speaking at some point.” Rich said as he looked down the rows, looking for the ones with his subjects.

“The Animorphs?” Jake said frowning as he watched Rich grab an econ book. “Your going to be learning about them?

“Yeah, more any ways, we all know some given it happened a couple years ago but the class is using different books that have come out since, one by an Animorph even,” Rich said excited as he walked down one of the row.”

“Which one?” Jake asked as he followed Rich.

“Not sure but it’s should be right here,” Rich said as he scanned the shelves, “here it is, it’s by Jack Berenson…” Rich trailed off as he picked up the book-on the cover was a scene of Jake sitting at the World Court, and an image of the Siberian Tiger beneath him.

“It was nice while it lasted.” Jake said with sigh.

***

_So Rich was the first guy to find out on campus out side a few administration people. He took it rather well and agreed not to tell anyone as long as I would help him with the class. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be having some one else know. We talked about it a few times and that was nice, to be able to just talk with someone who’s only angle was curiosity._

***

“How the hell did you pass high school?” Rich asked as he sat atop the picnic table.

“I didn’t really. That’s why I have tutors for basic math and English,” Jake explained as he pushed his fries around in the ketchups, “all of us were struggling, especially that last year when Visser Three was pushing harder and harder, without Ax and Eric…”

“Ax I know but Eric?” Rich asked sipping from his beer.

“Let’s just say the full story isn’t, but he was a friend that didn’t deserve what happened,” Jake said dropping the fry.

“Whatever it was, it wasn’t all you. You were thirteen then, but you know what. You’re 18 now, a freshmen and I’m your friend, things could be worse. Now drink your beer and let me see that paper again. You’re not leaving until you know what a comma is really for.”

***

_It’s good to have a friend who knows, but wasn’t part of it all. I can talk to him about it and he listens because he wasn’t there so it different for him, different than with Marco and Cassie. He didn’t have to deal with it all, didn’t have to deal with me at the end of it all.  
And it’s not just the war; we talk about other stuff too. Rich has been filling me in on all the stuff I missed dealing with the war. All the new NBA players and all new team ranking and really how did I miss that Jordan isn’t with the Chicago Bulls any more? Really, how did I miss that?_


End file.
